Doppelganger
by A. O. Talmidge
Summary: Someone is stealing from a lot of stores in Brooklyn, and the evidence shows that it is Rob. The Ghostwriter team knows that it is not him, including since the robberies happened when Rob was somewhere else. Who is this mysterious doppelganger, and can Rob and the rest of the team catch him?
1. Accusation

**Chapter One****:  
****Accusation**

"Look, I _know_ I saw you at the school basketball game last night," Alex insisted angrily.

"And I'm telling _you_ again that I wasn't there," Rob argued back.

It was about ten minutes before the first bell at Hurston Middle school was supposed to ring. Alex had found Rob in one of the school's hallways before he had even been to his locker.

Rob heard another voice, and turned to see his friend Jamal looking at him and Alex. "Whoa, what's going on here?" the dark-skinned boy asked, looking surprised.

Alex scoffed, and pointed to Rob. "Mr. I-don't-like-sports said that he wasn't going to go to the basketball game between Hurston and Dayton, but I saw him in the bleachers, about ten feet away or something, and he _still_ says that he wasn't there." He crossed his arms. "And I also saw him _again_ after the game in the hallway."

"For tenth time, that _wasn't_ _me_," Rob said, frowning. Seriously, why would Alex not believe him already? The Latino boy must have mistaken someone else for him, possibly even someone from Dayton Middle School. "You probably just weren't looking closely enough."

Jamal's face remained calm. "Okay, instead of arguing, let's try to figure this out," he suggested. He turned to Rob. "So, where were you last night?"

Rob resisted rolling his eyes. "At my house," he responded, a bit irritated.

"Doing what?" Alex asked.

Rob frowned again at both the disbelief and accusation in his friend's voice. "Writing," he answered testily.

He did not want to say _what_ he was writing. Actually, he had not shown any of his new friends anything that he had written. Sometimes his friends had asked, but he had always declined. The only time that he had really shown something to someone was a couple of stories to his older brother, Jason- but he did not want to show him everything he wrote. Plus, Jason was attending a school for the deaf all the way in Washington, D.C. and would not be home again for about a month.

"Can anyone else back that up?" Alex asked, scowling.

Rob could not believe that Alex was so worked up over something like this. Maybe the competitive sports spirit had his friend going a little crazy. He wondered if Hurston lost the game, and that was part of the reason why that Alex was so angry.

"Both my parents were there," he irritably responded.

Jamal nodded. "Okay, so Rob was at his house," he said. He turned to Alex. "So you saw the guy that you said looked like Rob in the bleachers first, right? Who was he with?"

"I don't know," Alex said. "But they looked like some guys from Dayton. They were wearing blue and red sports jackets."

Rob frowned again. "That just _proves_ that it wasn't me," he said. "Why would I be with people from Dayton? I don't even know anyone there."

Jamal held up one hand. "When did you see him?" he asked Alex.

"Near the middle of the first half," Alex replied. "I heard someone screaming about something, and I looked at it and happened to see him some seats up and to the left. Later, someone ran up to him- no sports jacket this time- and he and the two guys he was with went to the other side of the bleachers, and I didn't see him again until after the game."

"Did anyone else see him?"

Alex shrugged. "I don't know. He was gone by the time I finally got Jorge to look."

"The bleachers were pretty crowded, right?" Jamal asked.

Alex rolled his eyes. "Duh. It was a basketball game," he said. "The bleachers are always full."

Jamal nodded again. "Okay, I think that it's possible, with so many people there, that you probably saw someone else, both on the bleachers and in the hallway." Alex started to protest, but Jamal continued. "For another thing, Rob says he was at his house, and I believe him. He's our friend, and he's also on the team. I don't think that he would lie about it. And maybe there isn't someone that goes to Dayton that kind of looks like Rob, but maybe there is. You never know."

Alex sighed, then slowly nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he said. He turned to Rob. "Sorry I blew up on you like that."

"It's fine," Rob said, shrugging. "Did Hurston lose the game?"

Alex stared, incredulous. "You really weren't there, were you?" he asked. "We won by twenty points!" His face turned excited. "Man, it was awesome. It was the beginning of the second half, and we were five points ahead. David Rodriguez practically got shoved by this tall guy against the wall. The referee didn't even say anything.

"So anyway, he got up and grabbed the ball _from the point guard_, and made a basket right there. You should've seen the looks on the other team's faces. And then later, after Dennis and Corey and the rest of the team had gotten a lot more points, including an awesome three-pointer, David got tripped by a different guy and he went skidding across the floor. But then he got up, and what do you know, grabbed the ball again and landed another three-pointer, all in the last seven seconds."

Jamal laughed. "Sounds like Hurston had a really good game," he answered, smiling. "I wish I could have been there instead of going with my family to a restaurant, since my sister Danitra's in town from college for a bit. And I sure wouldn't want to be at Dayton right now."

"No kidding," Alex responded. "After the game, the guys on both teams were good and all, but there was a real commotion in the bleachers. There was this group that got into a really big fight before some teachers broke it up."

"Some people can get pretty crazy," Jamal said, grinning.

Rob laughed, trying and failing to not look at Alex.

Alex just rolled his eyes. "Tell me about it," he said, shaking his head.

"Hey, what's going on?" a friendly voice asked from behind them.

Rob turned around to see Lenni, another one of his friends. Like Jamal, she had apparently gone to her locker since she was also carrying her books for class.

Alex spoke up. "Did you see the game last night?" he asked.

Lenni nodded. "I went there with my dad," she answered. "He said that he wanted to see a game for a change."

Rob was glad that Alex was being friendly towards him again, but he could not stay and talk for forever. "I've got to get to my locker," he said.

Alex nodded. "Yeah, me too," he added. "See you later."

Rob waved to his friends and headed down the hall. He smiled, glad that he actually had friends at this school. After moving around to different military bases his whole life, having the Ghostwriter team was something that he had never would have guessed that he would be lucky enough to have.

"So how many times has the toy store been robbed?" Gaby asked.

She, along with Tina, were with the other members of the Ghostwriter team at Lenni's house above Alex and Gaby's family store. Gaby and Tina were younger than the rest and went to elementary school, but Rob had noted that did not make them less capable of helping the team.

Lenni was sitting in the middle of the right side of the corner couch, with a small green binder filled with unlined white paper open on her lap. She tapped the end of her uncapped pen as she spoke. "Three, including this afternoon," she answered.

"And I saw some people going out of the store right after they stole stuff," Alex said. "They were going so fast- and they ran to that big white station wagon and drove off. Boy, were they speeding."

"Did you see what was on it?" Tina asked. "Like something that Ghostwriter could find?"

Alex shook his head regretfully. "Nah," he said. "There wasn't anything like bumper stickers on it, and I didn't get to see the license plate."

Jamal spoke up. "Some other places have been robbed, too," he said. "Like the department store near one of the library branches."

"And also a library branch," Lenni chimed in, quickly jotting down the places. She looked up. "And all of those places are very close to each other."

"Is there anything that could be a clue?" Gaby asked. "Was there the same description of the person, or something?"

"We could check the newspapers," Lenni suggested, standing up. "My dad keeps them for a week, and all of the robberies have happened with the past four days."

Jamal nodded. "Clue time, here we come."

The phone then rang, and Lenni quickly set down notebook on the couch and ran to the small end table nearby to pick up the receiver.

"Hello, Frazier residence," she said. She listened for a little bit, then replied, "Yes, he's here," glancing at Rob.

Alex raised his eyebrows, and Rob shrugged. He was not sure what the call was about. It was Lenni's house, after all, though he had left a note on the kitchen table at his own house. Maybe it was one of the rare days that his mother was home early- unless something else had happened.

"Yes, he's here, too," Lenni said after a long pause. There was another pause. "Okay, I'll tell them," Lenni said, and hung up the phone.

She then turned toward the team. "Rob, Mrs. Jenkins says that your mom wants you home, and Jamal, your mom wants you home, too," she relayed. "She said something about Jamal helping with supper with Danitra since she was going to have to run some errands."

"What about Rob?" Gaby asked. "Why does he have to leave?"

Lenni shook her head, looking concerned. "She didn't say why, but just that it was urgent. She had said that Rob's mom sounded kind of worried."

Gaby made a face. "Uh-oh. That doesn't sound good."

Rob silently agreed. He had never been contacted to go to his house before, even when moving around various air force bases all across the country.

"Could we still work on things here with you two gone?" Tina asked from beside Gaby.

"Sounds fine to me," Jamal said, shrugging. "Just don't catch any robbers without us, right?"

Lenni smiled and nodded. "We'll be sure to tell you once we figure out something," she assured him.

"All right," Jamal answered, grinning.

He stood from the couch and headed toward the door. Rob followed suit, grabbing his skateboard that was leaning against the nearby color tiled counter as they passed it. The team voiced their good-byes to them before they headed out the door and down the steep steps to the sidewalk.

Rob hopped on his skateboard and sped off. "Hey, wait up, Rob," Jamal called out. Rob slowed a bit, and turned to see Jamal running toward him.

"I was told to hurry up," Rob said matter-of-factly once Jamal caught up to him.

Jamal shrugged. "Well, I just wanted to find out if things are going all right at your house. You know that mine is just a block away. I can always hurry back to it real quick."

Rob also shrugged some. "If you say so, but I want to get there fast," he responded.

"So I can see if I can beat a skateboard," Jamal said. "I get to practice running fast, and it can get me faster to my house, too."

"Okay," Rob replied. He rather doubted that Jamal would beat him, and hoped that his friend would not get in trouble for not going home first.

He pushed off with one foot several times and whizzed down the sidewalk, Jamal behind him. After about two more blocks, he could not hear his friend's running footsteps anymore. Another block later, he rounded the final corner and started down toward his house- a small maroon brick one story that he had often wished was larger. At least he knew that this time, the home was permanent.

Suddenly, he frowned. There was his mother's small blue car in the driveway, but parked by the curb right next to it, there was a _police car_. What was that about?

He zoomed to right by where his family front lawn started on the left side, about three feet from the police car, a bit hesitant to go in his house. There were footsteps behind him, and he turned around to see Jamal panting a little bit as he ran even faster toward him.

"Why are the police here?" Jamal asked, in between breaths.

Rob shrugged. "I don't know," he said, attempting to hide his concern.

He moved toward the house, a bit more slowly this time, with Jamal following him. Rob opened the door. He heard his mother, and turned toward her- and an older male police officer with graying hair- sitting on the couch near the entryway. The police officer instantly stood and started walking toward Rob and Jamal, as well as his mother.

"Rob, thank you for coming home quickly," his mother said.

Rob looked from his mother to the police officer. "What happened?" he asked. "Did the house get robbed," -he saw his mother flinch ever so slightly, but he continued anyway- "or something happen to Dad?"

Rob's mother shook her head. "No, neither of those," she said, looking a bit strained.

The police officer spoke up. Rob did not like his unfriendly eyes, nor his scrutinizing cold gaze that seemed to mean that he had found something that he had wanted. "We're just here to ask you a few questions," he said.

"Yes, sir," Rob responded, automatically adding the 'sir' by habit and repeated lessons of military etiquette from both many teachers in the military bases, and especially from his father.

He wondered what had happened. The thought of any brush with any sort of authority for doing something wrong had always been rather unsettling throughout his whole life. Even though now anything that he did would not cause his father to lose his job, he still never wanted to be on the wrong side of the law. He had not done anything for the police to come now, though.

His mother turned to Jamal. "Look, you better go now so we can talk to Officer Gwerson," she said.

Jamal nodded, looking worried. "Right," he replied. He turned to Rob. "I hope everything goes okay here."

Rob also nodded. "Yeah," he responded.

His friend left and Rob regretfully closed the door behind him, then turned to his mother and Officer Gwerson.

"We can talk over there," his mother said, gesturing to the open living room.

Officer Gwerson nodded. "Right, ma'am," he responded briskly.

Rob followed his mother to the couch, while the officer sat near them in his father's tan chair.

"Right, I'll be frank," Officer Gwerson started, clasping his fingers together. "There have been several stores lately that have been robbed, and one of them actually caught one of the robbers squarely on camera. My granddaughter identified you- she goes to the same school, and is in the same grade, even- and I have to tell you, you definitely look exactly like that kid in the department store."

His mother spoke before he could object. "But like I told you, about the timing- it couldn't have been Rob," she quickly said. "He would have been in school."

The officer turned toward him, and he tried not to flinch at the piercing gaze. "Were you at school at eleven am yesterday?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," Rob responded, feeling quite unsettled as the officer eyes continued to bore down on him.

Officer Gwerson did not seem convinced, and he turned toward his mother.

"We're going to be checking into that," he said. "We can't rule out any evidence here."

He unclasped his hands. "Well, I'm certain that you have told me all that you can- or will, for now," he said. "I'll only leave you" –he looked at Rob with another suspicious gaze- "with a warning this time, but next time there will be a penalty."

"But I didn't-" Rob started.

The officer held up a hand. "I told you already, I saw that video," he interrupted. "Now, there may be someone that looks exactly like you in this city, but I doubt it," he said.

Rob's eyes widened for a split second, suddenly remembering what Alex had told him in the morning, but did not particularly feel like relating the story to the mistrustful officer. He already did not believe him about being in school when the robbery at one of the stores had occurred.

"I'll leave you two now to get back to my business," Officer Gwerson announced, standing up. "Good afternoon," he said curtly.

His mother also stood. "I'll get the door for you," she said, hurrying to the entryway.

Rob turned around to watch the officer leave. His mother closed the door, then turned to Rob. "I'm sorry that you had to go through that," she said, looking worried.

Rob frowned. "I didn't _do_ anything, though," he replied.

His mother nodded. "I know," she said, coming around the couch and sitting down next to him. "It's not even like you to do such a thing." She sighed. "We can only hope that the authorities will find the actual thief."

"Yeah," Rob replied, nodding. He looked toward the window, where the curtains and blinds were partially open and saw the still sunny weather. "Could I go back to Lenni's?" he asked.

To his disappointment, his mother shook her head. "Sorry, Rob, but I would rather that you stay home for the rest of the day," she replied. "I know that you didn't do anything, but I just want there to not be any possibility of you coming into trouble somehow, especially with that officer. Do you understand?"

Rob sighed. "Yes," he answered.

For a brief moment, he was glad that his mother had insisted on not saying 'ma'am' when addressing her. His father had disapproved, but his mother had stated that it too strange for her sons to do that, even when some other military kids did with their own mothers. Even so, even she had been a bit strict about reminding him about following the many rules on the air force bases.

"I'll just be in my room," he said, glancing down briefly at the pen hanging on its cord around his neck that his friends had given him a few months ago.

It was his Ghostwriter pen, one for writing to the ghost that only he and his friends could see, and the words that he wrote. Rob could tell Ghostwriter about the whole incident with the police officer right now, and wait until tomorrow to tell his friends, though, especially since the officer had only given him a warning.

His mother nodded. "All right," she said. "I'll be starting supper soon. The prices for lettuce were ridiculous, though," she added, shaking her head. "And the tomatoes."

Rob also nodded, resisting the urge to grin widely at yet another mention of "overpriced items" from the grocery stores. Some of the prices still even baffled him sometimes, even for something small, such as a bag of potato chips. After living on air force bases more than twenty years, his mother was once again getting used to everything being much more expensive at civilian stores than at the commissaries on different bases.

Rob picked up his skateboard from where it was leaning against the couch and went into his room. He could not believe that Alex had actually seen someone that looked like him, assuming the officer- and his granddaughter; he wish he knew who she was- were telling the truth.

He sure also hoped that his father would not be too mad, though he definitely would not be happy, at any rate. Hopefully the actual culprit would be caught soon, and Rob would find out why he looked so much like him.


	2. Hunt

**Chapter Two  
****Hunt**

Rob sat down on the couch at Lenni's house next to Jamal. There was a knock on the door, and Lenni quickly went to the door and opened it.

He heard Gaby and her brother Alex, and Tina, and turned to see them coming with Lenni toward the living room area. They sat down on the couch, including Alex next to Rob on the corner. Lenni opened her notebook, which as Lenni had said during lunch, was full of possible clues. One was quite conspicuous, though . . .

"So what was this important clue that you guys know about that wasn't in the newspapers?" Gaby asked. Next to her, Tina also looked slightly impatient.

Jamal grinned. "You're not going to believe this," he said, glancing at Rob briefly. "So yesterday, Lenni and Alex had said that there was a common thing in all of the robberies mentioned where someone had seen the possible thief."

"Except the one that I saw," Alex put in.

"Right," Jamal agreed, nodding. "The witnesses said that they saw a middle school kid that could be a suspect in most of the robberies."

"And you would not believe what happened at Rob's house yesterday," Alex said.

Tina's face turned alarmed. "Someone broke into your house?" she asked.

Rob shook his head. "No, there was a police car there, and he had come about the robberies, but not at my place," he said. He quickly filled in the others about yesterday.

"_What?_" Gaby said, looking surprised. "Did you see the video too? Maybe the police officer and his granddaughter had seen someone else."

"No, I didn't see it," Rob replied, shaking his head again. "The police officer was sure that the kid in the video looked like me, though."

Alex spoke up, looking excited. "Remember what I saw at the basketball game, though?" he asked.

"What was that?" Tina asked curiously. "I heard from Gaby that Hurston won."

The Latino boy grinned. "By a landslide," he said. "During the first half, though, I had thought that I saw Rob there, between two Dayton guys."

"But it wasn't me," Rob said, crossing his arms.

"I know," Alex replied, shrugging. "But with what that police officer had said, it _proves_ that I saw someone that looks like you. And that someone goes to Dayton," he ended triumphantly.

"But how are we going to catch someone from Dayton?" Tina asked.

Alex shrugged again. "Beats me. Maybe we could go there after school with Rob, and see if anyone still there would recognize him."

Lenni looked up from writing in the casebook. Rob was a little creeped out by what she had no doubtedly written about his look-a-like.

"We have to find out whoever he is, though, before he gets Rob into more trouble," she said.

"But the police would've found out from the teachers that he was there when the robbery that the police guy at Rob's house was talking about," Alex said, frowning. "He would know now that Rob didn't do it."

Jamal looked concerned. "But what if he steals something when Rob's _not_ at school, or a place when Rob's not around anybody?" he said. "That could cause a problem."

"Why is he only stealing stuff from our side of town?" Tina asked, frowning. "Wouldn't it be easier to do that where he lives?"

Alex shrugged. "Maybe he didn't want to be recognized," he suggested. "Or maybe he even _knows_ about Rob, and is stealing stuff from his side of town to get him in trouble."

"And how would he know Rob?" Jamal asked doubtfully.

"Rob wasn't even in Brooklyn last year," Gaby chimed in.

Alex shrugged again. "Eh, I don't know," he said. "But now we have an evil Dayton twin to catch," he added, grinning.

Rob didn't really feel like grinning back, and wondered if Alex would feel less excited if it were if the robber looked like him instead. As Rob had expected, his dad had not been happy last night after he had come home. At least he was not grounded or anything like that, though it was almost like he was on a probationary period. Why did the look-a-like person have to suddenly pop up, anyway?

"A doppelganger, really," Jamal corrected Alex. "Rob doesn't have a twin, right?"

"Yeah," Rob said, nodding.

Alex grinned again. "Hey, I like that word," he said. "It sounds more sci-fi."

Lenni closed the notebook. "So asking someone at Dayton about Rob sounds good," she said. "We don't have any other clues. The stores- and the library branch- are not even related, besides that they're close to each other, and we don't know what was stolen. The times that things were stolen don't even match. They're all so random."

"Rob and I could go to Dayton after school tomorrow," Jamal said, looking at Rob. "If that's okay with you."

Rob shrugged. At least he would not have to tell his parents where in the world he was going, since they would still both be working. He definitely doubted that at least he dad would approve. "I guess," he said.

"And the rest of us can go check out the places that the doppelganger stole stuff from, and see what was stolen," Alex added.

Gaby nodded, smiling. "All right," she said. She then frowned some. "I wish I could go to Dayton with Jamal and Rob, though."

Alex narrowed his eyes at his sister. "You're from elementary school, and you look it," he pointed out disapprovingly. "People there would _know_ that you don't belong."

"Yeah, I guess," Gaby agreed reluctantly.

Jamal looked at Alex. "What did the people with the guy that looked like Rob at the basketball game look like?" he asked.

Alex frowned, thinking. "I think that one had darker skin, like he was African-American or something," he said. "And the other one had black hair. Maybe he was Mexican; or Asian, like Japanese, or Vietnamese like Tina. They looked like that they were in seventh or eighth grade. And later, some taller guy that could be the first guy's brother or cousin or something came over, and they and the doppelganger followed him to somewhere to the other left side of the bleachers."

Jamal nodded. "Okay, at least that's something," he asked. "We don't know who those two guys are, and they might not even be at Dayton after school. So it's probably the best that we either find the guy who looks like Rob, if _he_ would still be there, or someone that knows him, and find out who he is."

"Right," Rob agreed. Hopefully they would not be in trouble for being at the wrong school. He did not need anything else that the police would get on his case about.

"He could be skipping school again, though," Gaby pointed out. "He's stolen stuff during school before."

Tina looked at Alex. "Was the doppelganger carrying a backpack, or anything with words?" she asked. "So Ghostwriter could find it?"

Alex shook his head. "No, the only words that I saw were on the two other guy's Dayton jackets, and anyone could be wearing those. And I wasn't even close enough to see any names in the bleachers, and I wasn't looking for them when I passed them in the hallway, either."

"Yeah," Jamal said. "There are probably a lot of those jackets at Dayton."

"We'd all better be careful," Lenni commented, looking a bit worried. "Especially Rob and Jamal. They'll be going to another middle school. And the rest of us have got to watch out for more robberies, since so many have happened within so few days."

"It'll be so worth it, though," Alex said, grinning. He put his right fist firmly on the palm of his left hand. "Tomorrow, we're going to get more evidence to catch a doppelganger."

* * *

Rob looked at the tall maroon brick building, surrounded by a lot of leafy trees. He walked closer to the glass doors of the front of the building, Jamal beside him. His skateboard was still at his house, as he had purposely left it behind so that he would look less conspicuous when he went to Dayton, and he hadn't wanted to leave it in his locker. He had definitely missed it while going to school this morning.

He looked up briefly, seeing the name of the building in large colored letters on the brick wall. Dayton Middle School.

"I can't believe we're actually doing this," Rob said quietly to Jamal as his friend neared the front doors.

Jamal looked at him. "Well, we've got to get more clues about who your Dayton doppelganger is somehow," he pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah," Rob said, trying to ignore the dread in his chest.

He sure hoped that they wouldn't be caught being in the wrong school. Maybe there was a bit of solace in that maybe some Dayton teacher would remember him being at the school if his "evil" doppelganger stole something again while he was there.

One of the front doors opened suddenly, and a dark-skinned girl walked out. "Sorry," she said briefly, barely even looking at them.

The girl walked passed them. "Hey," Jamal called out to her. The girl turned around, looking impatient.

"Do you . . . uh, happen to know him?" Jamal asked, pointing to Rob. Rob tried to look as if he wasn't worried about getting caught, especially with Jamal's kind of odd question.

"No, sorry," the girl quickly responded.

Rob and Jamal watched the girl as she strode off away from them into the large parking lot.

"That didn't help any," Rob commented.

Jamal shrugged. "Well, it was just the first try," he said. "We can ask more people things inside."

Rob nodded, and futilely attempting to squash his jumping nerves as his friend opened the door and they walked inside.

The inside of Dayton looked like any school, he supposed, with posters and things like student art hanging on the walls. There were several red rugs on the floor that definitely was not at Hurston, though, as well as two stripes, red and blue, on the walls, as well as the Dayton insignia.

About twenty people later, including from in the computer room, as Rob had suggested- once they had found it, with the help of a nice teacher hanging something on a bulletin board in a hallway- they were still as clueless as they were as they had gone into the school.

"Wow," Jamal said to Rob near the library. "I wonder if would be better to go to some Dayton event, where they are a lot of kids from there. Maybe we should look at that bulletin board where that teacher was again."

Rob shrugged. It had been quite strange with Jamal asking so many people about the doppelganger in the first place. There might not even be a Dayton event anytime soon, though.

"Hey, you!" someone called from behind them.

Rob turned around guiltily, certain that someone had finally figured out that he and Jamal did not belong in the school. There was a boy with blonde hair running toward them, carrying a large colored poster.

The boy looked at Rob. "You're the weird guy that was with Travis and Daiki, right?" he asked. "Branson, or something?"

Rob looked at Jamal, a little miffed at the boy's attitude, as well as perhaps the sheer luck in being told both the names of the two people that had been with the doppelganger at the basketball game, as well as possibly the doppelganger himself.

He tried to look inconspicuous, like he belonged at Dayton, while Jamal answered. "Weird guy?" he asked.

The blonde boy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever," he said. "You don't go to Dayton-" Rob saw Jamal shoot a quick confused look at him- "and you appeared out of nowhere in the gym. I _know_ I saw that. And then one of the windows just exploded" –he popped out the fingers on his free hand- "just like that. So, what are you doing, anyway?"

"Uh-" Rob started.

The blonde boy smirked. "What's the matter?" he asked. "Feeling down since your buddies aren't with you?" He laughed slightly. "They're not here, anyway. I saw them leave school earlier. I _could_ say that you're not supposed to be here, though."

Rob was strongly reminded of a notorious mean kid in his grade at Hurston, Calvin Ferguson, as the blonde kid continued. "And I don't know you," he said, looking at Jamal. "You probably don't go here either. Boy, you're going to get in a lot of trouble if I rat on you two, huh?"

Jamal kept his usual calm demeanor as he answered. "Well, we were just looking for Travis and Daiki, like you said," he responded. "And we don't know where else they would be. Could you help on that one?"

"Like I'd help you," the blonde boy sneered. "But I guess that the librarian in there would, especially since you two aren't supposed to be here?" he added, pointing unnecessarily to the library wall windows to the left of them. "She's always there for a while, but anyone that stays for after school projects in Dayton would know that."

Jamal started to back up, and Rob followed him. "We . . . were just leaving," he said.

He started to run down the hall, and Rob ran beside him, ignoring both the shouting of a male teacher that came out of a classroom as they passed it- what bad luck- plus the annoying blonde kid.

Rob quickly looked behind him to see the teacher scowling angrily not at him and Jamal, but the Dayton kid. Perhaps he had a bad reputation of some sort, even with doing after school projects, maybe even for a sort of detention, and the teacher they had run passed had thought that the blonde kid was in the wrong for something.

Several hallways later, they reached the front entrance. Jamal quickly shoved the front door open and he and Rob burst out the door, and did not stop until they reached the outer side of the parking lot.

"Whew," Rob said, panting slightly. "I'm glad that teacher didn't follow us." He looked back at Dayton, but no one was pursuing them, and both the parking lot and the front of the building was thankfully void of any random people.

Jamal nodded. "Yeah, no kidding," he agreed. He straightened. "But we did get some clues about that doppelganger, and maybe his friends at the basketball game, though."

"Travis and Daiki," Rob said.

"Alex had said that one of the guys with the doppelganger could be Asian, and Daiki is an Asian name, right?" Jamal said.

"Yeah, it's Japanese," Rob answered. He had known someone named Daiki in an air force base in the south somewhere, possibly Alabama or Louisiana. He then frowned. "What about the window exploding, though, that the Dayton kid was talking about?"

Jamal shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "He could have been exaggerating. Windows don't explode by themselves."

"Yeah, definitely not," Rob agreed. The blonde boy had probably been wrong about the doppelganger when saying that he had 'appeared out of nowhere', also.

Rob looked at Dayton again, and still saw the parking lot, empty besides a few cars. "I wonder if the others found what the doppelganger stole."

"I hope so," Jamal said.

Just then, there was the sound of glass breaking behind them. Rob whipped around to look back at the parking lot, but saw no people- but he did see the broken side front window of a small tan car about ten feet from them.

"Did you see anyone throw anything?" Jamal asked.

Rob shook his head. "No," he answered.

He scanned the parking lot, squinting in the bright sun, but still saw no one there. Behind him, small trees lined the sidewalk, but unlike the large ones in front of the school, they were definitely not wide enough to hide anyone. Some fleet person could have run away quickly after throwing something, though.

They ran to the car, careful to not step on the sharp glass bits, but found nothing of interest beside the smashed window.

"I guess that whatever was thrown landed in the car where we can't see it," Jamal concluded, looking through the front window.

"Hey!"

Rob turned his head at an angry voice, and saw a black-haired high school-aged female wearing a backpack shouting and running toward them. "Did you bust that window?" she asked angrily, pointing at the tan car.

"No," Jamal insisted, but the high schooler's angered face looked far from appeased.

"I bet you guys are the ones that have been stealing from Dayton, too!" she shouted. She stamped her foot. "You stop doing things at my sister's school, you hear?" she demanded. "And I'll remember your faces!"

She pelted off toward the school entrance while Rob watched in distress.

"Well, at least we don't go to Dayton," Jamal said. "We'd better get out of here before someone else finds us here, though."

"Definitely," Rob agreed.

They dashed away from the parking lot, toward the direction of Lenni's house.


	3. Another Accusation

**Chapter Three  
****Another Accusation**

Rob walked with Jamal on the semi-busy sidewalk, about one block away from the Alex and Gaby's family store. He glanced ever so slightly to the right as they passed Tina's house, but he assumed that the Vietnamese girl would not be there.

A few blocks away from Dayton, Jamal had asked Ghostwriter to send a message to the others they were done with their part of the investigation. Lenni had responded that Gaby and Tina had finished and were with her at a library branch. She and Alex were almost finished, and had stated to meet her at her loft.

Rob quickly followed Jamal up the steep steps to Lenni's loft in the somewhat gusty wind. He wondered what the team had discovered about his doppelganger, and what he had stolen. What had the other found out from looking in the places where the robberies had occurred, anyway?

They quickly ran up the narrow staircase to Lenni's loft, and the brunette girl quickly answered the door when Jamal knocked.

"Hi. Come on in," she invited them.

They went through the door to find the rest of the team sitting on the corner couch, obviously waiting for them. Rob and Jamal put their backpacks next to the others below the tiled kitchen counter. A small breeze fluttered in through the open window nearby corner couch, probably since it was a hot day outside.

"So did you find out anything at Dayton?" Gaby asked excitedly once they were situated on the couch. "Did you find the doppelganger?"

Jamal spoke. "Well, no, we didn't find the doppelganger," he started.

"You didn't?" Alex echoed, obviously disappointed.

Jamal raised an eyebrow. "Hey, even though we didn't find him, we did find out what the names of his friends are," he stated. "And something that might be close to the doppelganger's name." He grinned. "Also, we found out two other important things. First, things have also been stolen from Dayton, but we don't know what. And second, the doppelganger doesn't go to school there."

"He _doesn't?_" Alex exclaimed, his face shocked. "But I _saw_ him with those two people at the basketball game. They definitely were wearing Dayton jackets."

"Well, he doesn't go to Hurston either," Lenni recounted, looking up from writing in her notebook.

"Then why was he at the basketball game?" Alex wondered, completely baffled with his hands in the air in a confused gesture.

Jamal shrugged. "He could be visiting from out of town," he pointed out. "Maybe he was with his friends and happens to like basketball, even though it's not a team from his school."

Alex scoffed. "Some friend he is, stealing stuff from town while he's here."

"Maybe they don't know?" Jamal put in.

Tina was frowning. "Why would he go and steal stuff when he could be spending time with his friends, or whoever he's visiting with?" she asked. "It just doesn't make too much sense."

"Unless he always steals things," Alex stated. "Maybe they just don't know he's a thief. And therefore, a criminal." He rolled his eyes. "Great, we could even have an escape thief artist from California, or even Russia, or something else way out there."

"Did anything else happen?" Tina asked.

Rob nodded. "Well, I we don't know if it's related to anyone stealing things from Dayton, but someone broke a window of one of the cars in the parking lot. While we were in it."

"You didn't see anyone?" Alex asked, while Lenni jotted something about the car window.

Rob shook his head. "No, I guess they ran off after doing that."

Alex frowned, but then shrugged. "Yeah, for whatever reason, the bad guys never want to get caught."

"I wonder who else has been stealing things from stores with the doppelganger," Tina stated. "He's not the _only_ thief."

Lenni shrugged, and set her chin on her left hand. "I don't know," she said. "The places that we went to didn't know who the people were, either, and couldn't give any more clues on who the other people were other than the facts that were already printed in the newspaper."

"But you did get what was stolen, right?" Jamal asked.

Lenni nodded. "Right."

"I want to know what the doppelganger's friend's names are first," Gaby stated.

"And the doppelganger's," Tina put in. She frowned. "But you said that you only had something close to it."

Jamal nodded, while Lenni readied her pen. "Yeah, someone told us that his friends are Travis and Daiki, and he had also said that the doppelganger's name is 'Branson or something.'"

"Branson or something?" Gaby repeated, while Tina looked thoughtful.

"That could his first name, but it can also be a last name," she stated, tapping a finger on her chin.

Gaby's face looked excited. "Like Gary Branson in our grade," she recalled, then made a face. "He's really annoying."

Jamal didn't seem to share her enthusiasm. "Maybe, but it wouldn't really make much sense, if Travis and Daiki are first names."

Lenni was nodding. "They sure seem like they might be," she said.

They then came up with a variety of possible names for the doppelganger, first starting with more common ones like Braydon or Brendan, then some random, more outlandish sounding ones, such as Gaby's contribution of 'Bainbridge' from a book that she had read once.

Lenni found a names book from a closet across the room. Gaby and Tina, the latter of which was usually a bit more serious, were giggling over 'Baelfire' when Jamal intervened again.

"Okay, let's get serious, guys," he said.

Alex nodded. "Yeah, we haven't even told Jamal and Rob what was stolen yet."

Gaby reluctantly handed Lenni the name book, who placed it on the table near the cordless phone. She then sat down again, and put a finger to the still open notebook.

"The compass and rulers from the department store," Lenni began.

"They were wooden ones," Gaby interjected. "Don't forget that the type could be important."

Lenni nodded. "Right. There are three types of things from the toy store. First, there are around two small light-up bears- one with a hat that can glow if you push a button on the back of it; second, four black kitty kitty kittens, regular size-"

"A toy cat that makes a purring noise if you move it," Gaby explained.

"Third, two ten inch magna doodles-"

"Things you draw on," Gaby interjected.

Alex scoffed. "I _know_ what a magna doodle is," he said, scowling a bit.

Tina was looking a little confused. "Why would they want those toy cats?" she asked.

Alex merely rolled his eyes. "Who knows why they're stealing from a toy store from the first place. Since they're black, maybe they want to use them to scare store people by pretending that they're spiders before they steal something else."

"I think that would be ruined by the noise they make," Rob pointed out. "Gaby said they make a purring sound when you move them, right?"

The Latino boy shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

Lenni continued listing the items stolen. "Next is the dollar store- three bungee cords, red and blue striped, half an inch thick."

"Who'd want bungee cords from a dollar store?" Alex wondered. "I mean, they can't really be the good kind if you get them from there."

"You'd be surprised what type of good things you can for low prices from stores like that," Jamal pointed out. "Sometimes even for lower prices than other places, even something like a hardware store, and it's the same exact thing."

Lenni nodded. "Some things aren't so good, but other things are. My dad once got a phone cord that would have cost a lot more at another store."

The Latino boy shrugged. "Well, it's not like they even bought them, anyway."

"That's true," Jamal responded, nodding.

Gaby was looking a bit confused. "Why would they want a bungee cord?"

Next to her, Tina was looking thoughtful. "You can use them to hold things shut," she said. "Like the trunk of a car that has a lot of things in it, and it can't close all of the way. You can even put one in a fridge door, to get the things on the shelf to stay on."

Alex suddenly grinned. "Hey, Papa did that once, before we got another fridge. Remember that, Gaby?"

His sister was not looking amused as she scowled. "Yeah, and you opened the fridge, somehow unhooked the cord, and the chocolate syrup fell down straight onto the box that had a new shipment of some things for the store."

"Yeah, yeah, but I'm not the one that put the box there."

"But you _were_ they one that had left the lid of the chocolate syrup open in the first place."

Jamal spoke up before the siblings could argue any more. "Okay, let's get back to the case, guys."

Beside Alex, Lenni nodded. The brown-haired girl continued listing items, including several metal replications of stone arcs and a large bag of colored glass marbles.

Gaby was suggesting that a lot of the items could be separated into two main groups- cleaning supplies and toys- when they heard a loud shout from outside. The voice was soon joined with a couple of others.

Tina made a face. "I hope someone is just arguing, and there's not _real_ trouble," she stated hopefully.

Beside her, Gaby's face suddenly lit up. "Maybe the thieves stole something again!" she said excitedly.

She then practically jumped off of the couch to peer out the window screen. Rob saw Jamal shrug, obviously not content with Gaby's explanation, but he followed Jamal and the others are Gaby motioned them over. Rob was crouched beside Alex and Jamal, when the voices started up again, and this time, he could hear more clearly what they were saying.

"You stupid idiots!" yelled some grown-up male, out of view of the small window. "I know I saw them- and that one of them had my rare first edition books! Worth a fortune, they are!"

Someone else shouted something else, but they looked at each other, with Gaby's face set in a large grin.

"They did steal something!" she exclaimed. She then turned to Rob. "And if the doppelganger did it and is still around somewhere, then they would know that Rob didn't do it!"

Beside Rob, Jamal was frowning. "But if he's not there, then Rob could get into more trouble."

Gaby was not to be deterred, though. "Maybe not." She stood and motioned for them to follow her. "Come on, already!"

Rob hesitantly followed the others, a bit more slowly, out of the loft and down the narrow steps onto the wide sidewalk. He briefly saw Lenni's father, Max, as they rushed past, but even Lenni did not stop to greet. Rob looked around as he ran, but did not see anyone yelling anymore, nor anyone that resembled him or seemed to be a thief. After walking down the sidewalk a little way, he did see a slightly familiar slightly tall male with a frustrated scowl on his face.

"I know him," Alex said suddenly. "He's the owner of that book shop near the bodega. I get a lot of mystery books from there."

Rob nodded, as he now recognized the Mexican owner that had greeted him sometimes during the many times that he had frequented the small store. Hopefully the man did not actually remember him now, of all times, though.

He hung back as Gaby, Lenni, and Alex ran toward the owner- Mr. Garza, if he remembered correctly- and watched as Gaby instantly started talking to him.

"Did anyone steal something from your store?" she asked him hopefully.

He nodded, sighing as he stopped. "Probably all gone by now, though I should hope that my assistant was able to reach the police just fine," he replied.

"My friends and I heard something about rare first editions," Gaby pressed. "Do you know which ones?"

The man nodded somberly. "Yes, they were going to be on display, but there had been signs for them going to for a week now." Rob then knew what the books were, and Alex spoke up.

"I remember those," the Latino boy said. "It was first editions of famous kid's books, like _The Secret Garden_, and other things like that."

Mr. Garza nodded again. "Yes, that was the theme," he responded. "Someone had donated those a while ago, and I had no use for them. Maybe someone in Brooklyn would have liked them- for actual money later, of course, but that chance is gone now."

"Did you see the thieves?" Lenni asked him.

The store owner nodded. "Two of them, if I was correct. Maybe someone else, but I'm not sure."

"Did anyone else see them?"

Mr. Garza nodded. "Well, I know my assistant claims she saw someone, but they're kind of iffy with their memory most of the time for things like-"

"Oy, you!" a new female voice shouted.

The store owner turned around to greet a female with a long, tan ponytail running toward him. "Eh, now what is it this time, Franziska?" he asked wearily. "Did you make the call, or not?"

Franziska frowned, seeming angered. "Yes, but that's one of the thieves- right there!"

"Eh?" the store owner asked again, looking rather bewildered.

He turned around in the direction that the woman was pointing. Rob looked around a bit to maybe see the thief- or the doppelganger- when he realized that the female was pointing straight at _him_.

He winced as Mr. Garza's eyes suddenly widened. "Hey, it _is!_" he shouted. He lunged toward Rob with long, thin fingers. "You better give those books back, wherever you stashed them!"

Instantly, Jamal and Tina stood in front of Rob, with Gaby tugging on the man's arms. "It wasn't Rob," she insisted.

Alex was now in front of Rob as well. "Yeah, he was just with us until we heard you shouting about the rare editions being stolen."

Unfortunately, Mr. Garza was looking anything but satisfied. "Even thieves can change clothes and pretend to hide in the crowd," he snarled.

Rob had never seen him look so angered, and definitely not at him. Perhaps Mr. Garza really liked those rare edition books more than he had said, but he supposed that something getting stolen would make anyone angry. The store owner tried to lunge toward Rob again, with Gaby and Alex barely keeping him back.

Jamal turned toward him. "Maybe you can hide out in the bodega until things settle a bit," he suggested in a low tone. "Mr. Fernandez would tell that you wouldn't steal anything-"

Lenni's eyes suddenly widened. "My dad!" she exclaimed. "I know we went past him just a bit ago."

Without further ado, she dashed off behind them. Rob sure hoped that he had seen him specifically, instead of just the others in the group. A police siren wailed in increasing tones as it neared them. Tina pointed to the officer getting out of the car.

"Lieutenant McQuade might be able to help, too," she said, sounding relieved.

Rob nodded, still anxious as the familiar officer headed toward through the growing crowd. The officer frowned at the sight of three kids holding the angry store manager. Even though he knew Rob and his friends, there was no guarantee that he would stick up for him, especially with no solid evidence to help this time.

"Hey, what is going on here?" the officer asked authoritatively.

Gaby let go of the man and pointed to Rob. "That guy thinks that Rob stole his books!" she stated, her face quite frustrated.

Mr. Garza frowned deeply. "He did," he spat. "I saw him, and also Franziska before he ran off."

"Lieutenant McQuade!" Rob heard Lenni shout from behind him.

He turned around to see Lenni with her father, who was looking a bit baffled at the scene.

Lenni ran right up to the officer. "Lieutenant McQuade, my dad saw all of us, including Rob, just before we saw you," she said breathlessly. "It wouldn't be enough time for Rob to have stolen something from the book store and then hide it somewhere."

Lieutenant McQuade looked quizzically at Max Frazier. "Did you really?" he asked.

Lenni's father nodded. "Well, I know I saw them all running right past me when I was about to go up the steps to my home," he responded. "I'm not sure what exactly is going on here, but I know Rob was with them- just like Lenni said." He frowned a bit, thinking. "And I don't think they were carrying anything."

Gaby stepped nearer them. "We weren't," she stated firmly.

Lieutenant's face raised an eyebrow. "Well, it's better that you all have this witness here with you, even if I know you all to be good citizens," he said sternly. "Especially with two accusations."

Mr. Garza huffed. "Well, I know I saw _someone_ that looked like him," he spat, crossing his arms.

"That's the doppelganger," Tina spoke up.

Alex nodded. "Yeah, there's this thief going around that looks like Rob. No one has caught him, but I saw him once, at the Hurston basketball game against Dayton."

Lieutenant McQuade had on a thoughtful look. "Has anyone else seen this doppelganger?" he asked, while Mr. Garza's eyes widened in disbelief.

"You really expect me to believe some rather convenient, farfetched story about a look-a-like?" he asked, incredulous.

The officer merely held up a hand to let Alex continue. Rob saw Mr. Garza huff again and walk away, shaking his head, followed by Franziska. She opened the door, and the store manager stomped through. Rob turned back to Alex.

". . . but this officer saw this tape in a store that had the doppelganger, but Rob was in school when it happened, and the teachers gave proof that he was," the Latino boy finished.

Lieutenant McQuade nodded appreciatively. "Thanks for the information about the doppelganger," he said. "I can check with the officer-"

"Officer Gwerson," Rob quickly supplied.

"Right, I can check with Officer Gwerson about that tape, and see if there is any other definite suspicious activity," Lieutenant McQuade stated. He turned to Rob. "Meanwhile, you had better watch out for more trouble. I'm sure that there would be plenty that wouldn't even begin believe anything about a doppelganger." He briefly looked at Lenni's father, then to the team again. "And you all were sure lucky that someone else happened to see Rob this time."

Rob nodded. "Yes, sir," he replied. "I will."

"Good then," the officer responded. "I'll have a little chat with the store owner there, and see if we can find anything else about those thieves he saw."

"Including what the other one looks like," Gaby stated. "He saw two, but we only know what one of them look like. And that's the doppelganger."

Lieutenant McQuade nodded again. "Right, I'll do that," he said.

He lifted a hand in farewell, and went inside the small store. Rob then turned back around, surprised to see that a small crowd had gathered around them. Maybe the yelling had to do with it, though, plus Lieutenant McQuade being there. He saw a few people, then more start to head away, but with a small wince he noticed that several of them were looking at him as they doubted the "tale-tell" of his thieving look-a-like.

He was more than glad to walk back with his friends to Lenni's loft. Alex turned back to Rob as they went down the wide sidewalk.

Lenni's father spoke up. "Well, that was an unexpected thing to happen," he said.

"Yeah, no kidding," Lenni replied. She frowned a bit as she folded her arms.

Max Frazier smiled some at his brunette daughter. "Well, I guess I'll catch you guys later. I was just going to stop for a few minutes at the loft to pick up some music."

He waved to the group, and headed on toward the narrow steps to the loft. Rob turned back to the group to see Alex also frowning.

"Man, that was crazy," the Latino boy said, shaking his head slightly. "I mean, talk about a troublemaker. That doppelganger guy has got to be caught before something else goes weird on us."

"And before Rob gets arrested," Lenni added seriously just before they went up the narrow steps near the bodega.

Lenni's father went out the door just after they had settled on the corner couch. They then tried to think about more things about the case, without success. Lenni and Gaby even went to see if Lieutenant McQuade was at the store and if the Mr. Garza or Franziska would tell them any more information, but that was all negative.

"Mr. Garza even slammed the door in our faces," Gaby reported as she slumped on the couch next to Tina.

"I don't think he would tell us anything for the next month, if this keeps up," Lenni gloomily added, her chin on one hand while the other was tapping her pen against the notebook. Tina nodded, making a face.

Unfortunately, a few minutes and a couple of phone calls later, Tina, Alex, and Gaby soon had to leave.

"Inventory," Alex muttered, as he stood up from the couch. "Man, I hate doing that."

His sister nodded with the same glum look. "It takes so _long_," she complained.

They soon said their good-byes, and Rob was soon zooming long past Jamal on the sidewalk. He was not sure what he would do if he saw the doppelganger. Then again, maybe the look-a-like would just steal something again practically right under his nose and run off, without him ever being the wiser.


	4. Unexpected Things

**Chapter Four  
****Unexpected Things**

Rob waved to his mother from the open front doorway of his house, who was sweeping the living room floor. The large rug had been draped over the back of the couch.

"I'm leaving now," he called quickly before hurrying out the door.

Rob dashed off the porch and set his skateboard down on the ground and whizzed down the straight driveway, then turned ninety degrees onto the sidewalk. There were a couple of grassy clumps on the sidewalk from where apparently someone had been digging up weeds in their yard and had missed a few.

He wheeled around them, then passed a grandmother and two of her grandchildren on the sidewalk- they lived a few houses to right of his- with the old woman pushing a large stroller. The older of the granddaughters waved two toy cats at him, one grey, and the other calico. Rob waved back automatically, and heard the rattling sound back in reply.

He zoomed across several blocks and swerved around a couple of trash bins that were for some odd reason in the middle of the sidewalk, then in front of an elderly man sweeping in front a small store. Rob then turned the corner-

And banged straight into what looked like a gang of rough high schoolers.

Rob toppled off of his skateboard onto the hard ground. He looked up to see the furious face of a tall, lean high schooler wearing a bright green jacket. He quickly stood up, only for the teen to shove him down again. Rob winced as something from his backpack painfully jabbed into his back.

"Watch where you're going, runt!" the teen spat at him.

Thankfully the rest of the group of high schoolers then just laughed and jauntily walked off instead of showing more interest in him. Rob stood up again and readjusted his pack so that it was more comfortable. He then looked around for his skateboard, where he had seen it stop against the brick store wall.

It was not there.

Frowning, Rob turned around, even glancing under a couple of parked cars nearby. He only saw a bit of litter on the paved road, and when he turned arounds the old man was looking at him, his wrinkled hands placed atop his broom.

"Did you lose something?" he asked kindly.

Rob nodded quickly. The man raised one had and pointed toward the street.

"Those boys that bumped into you seem to have something," he stated.

Rob followed his gaze, and his eyes widened as he saw the high schoolers chortling nearby on the cross walk. The rude teen that had spoken to him was holding his skateboard in front of him, while a few inspected it, with one even spinning the front left wheel.

Muttering a quickly "thanks" to the old man, Rob dashed across the sidewalk toward the white painted lines.

"Hey!" he called out.

The teens turned around, but a few of them just laughed, including the one in the green jacket that was holding his board. The high schooler raised an eyebrow at him and held up the skateboard tantalizingly, then ran off, his group following him.

Rob scowled and took off after them. It did not help that the high schoolers had a head start, but there was no way he wanted to lose his skateboard that he had had for several years now.

He followed them around several buildings, then back across another cross walk. Rob rounded another corner, but the crowd had thickened around a large display of books and doughnuts, and he had to frustratingly veer around them, almost touching the street. By then, he had lost the sight of the group and the bright green jacket.

Rob huffed at the unfamiliar sparse crowd around him. By now, he had come onto some random street, that, as he looked around, was actually not too familiar. He vaguely remembered traveling this way before Jamal and Alex to look for Tina's younger sister one time, but he had not come to this particular area since then.

Of course, now, he was not only quite likely minus his skateboard, but he was also lost. The former was definitely worse as he could easily ask for directions from a friendly store owner somewhere, though.

Suddenly, he heard a sudden commotion from across the street. To his surprise, he saw the group of high schoolers standing there, with the one in the green jacket shouting at a slightly shorter person in the group. The latter spread out his arms in a confused manner before the taller one shoved him roughly, causing him to tumble to the ground.

He picked himself up off the sidewalk, then walked off, scowling. The one in the green jacket huffed, and headed in the same direction. The others followed him, looking no less angry.

Rob was about to chase after them yet again, when someone shorter stepped out from outside a small store across the street. He instantly saw that the person was carrying a skateboard that could even be his, and then as he remembered the teens walking away, that none of them had been carrying anything.

He squinted as a car passed nearby him, briefly blocking the view of the kid across the street. It could have been just the sunlight that was quite bright, but it really seemed that the boy had dark brown hair . . . and looked just like him.

Was he really looking at the mysterious doppelganger that had caused so much trouble?

The kid did not look like any sort of troublemaker, nor did he sneer in triumph like the rude group of high schoolers had. He was just staring in Rob's direction, his face mostly neutral, but with another expression that he could not tell what it was.

Rob shook his head and was about to charge toward the doppelganger, when they lifted their arm holding the skateboard. He cringed slightly, wondering where he was going to chase after it now, when the kid let go of the board in a powerful throw.

He stared, amazed, as the skateboard seemed to fly, spinning slightly as it sailed through the air in a perfect arc toward him. Rob braced himself to dash after the board once it hit the ground somewhere in the street, but surprisingly, it kept on coming in his direction.

Once it was just about a foot away from him, it slowed, somehow. Rob watched, slightly stunned, as it actually _stopped_ about a foot above the ground, hovering in mid-air, then suddenly toppled onto its wheels and rolled slightly away toward the street. Rob blinked in astonishment, then lunged forward to pick it up. He absentmindedly checked the board for any sort of damage, but other than the usual dust from the ground on the wheels, it seemed to be just fine.

Rob then remembered the doppelganger again. He looked across the street, but to his disappointment, only a few unfamiliar pedestrians meandered along the stores, and no one with brown hair seemed to be his age.

He quickly tucked his board under his arm- just to be safe- and ran across the cross walk. Even checking in and around the line of buildings yielded no results. Rob stopped by the light post, fairly disappointed as he gazed out onto the busy street. His doppelganger had vanished just as easily as the group of high schoolers, except he seemed to have easily stolen a skateboard from the gang of rough teens, all older than him . . .

Who was he, anyway?

Rob went into the same store that he had seen the doppelganger come out of. Thankfully, the store clerk was thankfully both free to talk to and knew how to get to where he had been before the chase. He mostly easily followed the directions, and soon found himself on a street that he recognized.

The same old man from earlier was now polishing one of the store windows and turned around as Rob passed by.

The man smiled, pausing in his work. "Oh, I see you got your rolling thing back," he stated friendlily. "I'm sure someone nice helped, right?"

Rob quickly nodded. "Er, yeah," he replied, still a little unnerved.

He then put down the board and whizzed on by, careful go a bit slower around the corners. Rob then stopped to wait at yet another crosswalk, with a large blue station wagon passing in front of him. He then looked around again. The crowd around him was all unfamiliar, with no one that even looked close to any person that he had seen before, besides a few police officers chatting by a street pole.

He scowled a bit, remembering the unexpected visit from Officer Gwerson at his house and the trouble from that, as well as the incident from the book store owner just yesterday. "Nice" was definitely not a word that had come to mind before when thinking about his evasive thief doppelganger.

* * *

"You _saw_ the doppelganger?" Alex repeated, his face almost disbelieving.

Rob nodded at his friend from across the small cafeteria table. He had met with his friends from Hurston at lunch again. "Yeah, he was across the street," he said.

"Where was that?" Lenni asked, interested.

Rob shrugged. "Don't know," he replied. He certainly had not been paying much attention to what streets he had rushed through, chasing the rude gang.

"Anyway, these high school guys stole my skateboard," he relayed. "I was following them, but then lost them a few streets away. Then I saw them again, across the street, but they didn't have my skateboard anymore."

Jamal raised an eyebrow. "Did they hide it?" he wondered.

Rob shook his head. "No, since the one that had it was real mad at this other guy in the group. Then after that they were gone, and that's when I saw him."

"The doppelganger?" Lenni asked.

Rob nodded. "It was just really weird," he replied. "He really did look just like me. And then this weird thing happened . . ." He hesitated, remembering what had occurred next.

"What?" Alex asked, now holding a piece of garlic bread.

Rob described the queer events after that, and predictably, Alex was soon rolling his eyes in disbelief.

"There's just no way," the Latino boy said as he finished his bread and picked up his juice. "Sure, maybe you also saw the doppelganger, like I did. But there's no way I'm going to believe that skateboards can fly."

"And float," Lenni added dubiously, raising an eyebrow.

Rob scowled. This was why he had not really wanted to tell the last part in the first place, but he knew that he _had_ seen it, though.

"I'm telling you, I actually saw it do that," he retorted, leaning forward slightly.

To his disappointment, his friends still had rather doubting looks on their faces, including Jamal. Alex picked up his second piece of garlic bread, while Lenni crossed her arms above her finished lunch and looked out toward the noisy cafeteria.

He sighed, leaning back into his seat. If his friends knew about Ghostwriter in the first place, why did they not believe him? Sure it was rather strange, but he had seen it. It sure seemed like Jason, his older brother, would know that he was not lying. Unfortunately, he would, as it usually always was, have to wait for a reply in about a week due to the sometimes almost unbearable slowness of the post mail.

Rob zipped up his lunch box, picking up the single plastic bag his sandwich had been in.

"Where are you going?" Jamal asked as he stood up from the table.

He huffed a bit. "Somewhere else," he replied curtly.

Rob then left the small table, and after throwing away the bag, headed toward the computer lab where no one would call him nuts.

* * *

Rob pulled open the glass door of the bodega with a loud jingle of the bell above it. Alex had told him right after school about the team meeting at the bodega instead of Lenni's place, and the changed time for an hour and a half after school instead of just an hour.

He wondered if he was the first one there, besides Alex and Gaby, of course. Rob smiled some as he saw the Latino boy busily piling some chip bags on the stacks in front. He was feeling much calmer than earlier.  
He headed toward Alex, wondering what other clues the team could come up with next. Hopefully they could even find more hints about the doppelganger.

Rob then suddenly felt someone bang straight into him, and he toppled backward to the floor even as he heard what sounded like a bunch of boxes tumbling onto the ground.

"Ow," he heard Gaby mutter.

He looked up to see Gaby rubbing her head, with various small colored boxes around her.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

There were some running footsteps, and he stood up and saw Alex glaring at his sister, who was busily stacking the boxes on the floor. "I told you that was too many for you to carry," the Latino spat, frowning some.

Gaby rolled her eyes as she stacked the last box in a rather jumbled pile. "I _was_ carrying them until Rob banged into me."

She then tried to heft up the disorderly stacks, but even Rob could tell that they were going to fall again. He put down his skateboard against the counter, and held out his arms.

"Here, let me carry some of them," he offered.

Gaby looked rather annoyed, until Alex spoke up. "Papa would be pretty mad if those crackers got all broken if you drop them again."

His sister huffed. "Fine," she replied, allowing Rob and Alex to take some of them.

She then hefted the rest closer to her, and he followed her to the left edge of the counter, where there was already a bunch of various cracker boxes neatly stacked.

"They go right there," Gaby said, pointing awkwardly with one arm to a somewhat empty case to the left.

He nodded, and stacked his pile on top of Alex's. Gaby was neatly rearranging hers on top, when Rob heard Mr. Fernandez speak from behind him.

He turned to see the friendly Latino man smiling at his children. "Good work," he stated, looking at the filled supplies on the racks. "That's the last of it?"

Gaby nodded. "Sí, Papa, and we even got the extra naranjas outside," she stated, grinning.

Mr. Fernandez nodded. "That's definitely good," he responded. "Many people have been wanting more fruit lately, so it is nice to supply them with what they need."

Alex nodded, looking satisfied at the praise. His father then seemed to notice Rob, and he stared a little bit before speaking.

"Oh, so you're Rob, then?" he asked, his face quite curious.

Gaby raised her eyebrows. "Of course you know Rob, Papa. He's our friend."

Mr. Fernandez nodded as he went behind the counter. "I saw someone earlier that looked just like him, just about an hour ago."

Rob was confused, but Alex beat him to a reply. "But Rob was still at Hurston, then."

He nodded. "Yeah."

Mr. Fernandez shrugged. "I guess so," he replied. "It was quite strange. He came into the store, and was just looking around with a couple of friends. I noticed him, and called him Rob, of course, since he looked very similar."

He pointed to Rob, then continued. "He then looked confused, and asked, 'Who's Rob?' I asked him if he was playing a joke, but he seemed to still be confused. He told me then, that I must be thinking about someone else. He then later leaves the store with his friends."

Gaby's eyes widened. "You saw the doppelganger!" she exclaimed.

"Doppelganger?"

Alex nodded as he leaned closer to the counter. "Yeah, there's this thief going around that looks like Rob, and no one's been able to catch him," he informed his father.

"But it's not Rob," Gaby put in.

"And those friends of his- maybe they don't even know that he steals stuff."

Rob nodded as Mr. Fernandez looked thoughtful for a few seconds. "Well, he certainly did not look like a thief, or his friends," he said. "He was polite, did not look suspicious- and I have certainly seen many that were very suspicious during the years."

"Maybe he even stole something from here," Gaby added with a small scowl on her face, ignoring her father's words.

Unfortunately, Mr. Fernandez only shrugged, not looking too interested in the theory. "That is interesting news about Rob having a look-a-like, but I cannot blame anyone without proof," he said sternly. "That would only cause more trouble."

Alex looked to his father expectantly. "Well, we _know_ that the doppelganger was stealing things before," Gaby said. "A police officer even caught him on camera, and two people saw him stealing something yesterday."

Rob frowned ever so slightly, even though he knew that Mr. Fernandez had seen someone that looked like him- like he had this morning, actually. Was there a reason why the doppelganger had been there, and then at the bodega, where he was going to be later? Him being at the book store yesterday was most likely coincidence, though- or he hoped that, anyway.

Alex's father looked up again, this time looking much more stern. "I hope you don't go around blaming people when you don't know they have actually done something," he said firmly. "Now, you can stay here and be quiet, or go elsewhere to talk."

Rob blinked a bit- he had not heard the Latino man sound quite like that before, but then again, he was not his son. Alex, then Gaby nodded, looking a bit somber.

"Sí, Papa," he agreed, and Gaby followed suit.

Rob went with the siblings into their large shared bedroom, where they were soon joined by the rest of the team. Jamal sat next to him on Alex's bed, while girls crowded on Gaby's. They soon ralayed the recent happenings from just a while ago, and Lenni opened her backpack and took out the blue notebook, copying the information down.

Gaby spoke up again. "We've got to do something more about that doppelganger," she started, huffing a bit.

"Yeah, and before Papa gets mad at us again," Alex agreed, frowning as he crossed his arms.

Lenni nodded as she put her pen to the paper in her notebook again. "What do we want to know about him?" she asked.

Tina spoke up from where she was sitting next to Gaby. "We want to know where he lives, or someplace that he might go," she said. "It's hard to find someone when you don't know a place where they would be."

Alex nodded. "Like a secret hideout with other thieves," he added.

"They could be in this huge abandoned mansion that no one has used in years," Gaby chimed in, her face suddenly excited as if she was imagining a large, movie-like mansion complete with vampires, bats, and secret passages full of treasure.

Tina was frowning at that. "I don't think that there are any mansions around here that no one knows about," she replied doubtfully.

Gaby shrugged just before Jamal spoke up. "They could be hiding somewhere, but we already know that we don't know how to find them." He lifted a finger in the air a bit. "But what we do know, is who the doppelganger hangs around with."

Rob nodded. "Yeah, they could even be the two people mentioned that Mr. Fernandez saw with him."

"Travis and Daiki," Lenni stated, pulling turning to another page in her notebook and presumably pointing to their names.

Gaby put her chin on her right hand, leaning downward on her lap. "But how would we find them?" she asked. "We don't even have their last names."

Rob was wondering the same thing, when Alex spoke up. "I can't believe you forgot yesterday," he stated to his sister.

Gaby rolled her eyes. "Why would I forget that book store owner accusing Rob?" she demanded.

Alex laughed a bit. "Hello? We've been talking about the doppelganger's friends names, right, which they found out when they went to Dayton?" he said, pointing unnecessarily to Rob and Jamal.

Rob then saw where Alex was going with this, but let Gaby speak up.

"So?" she asked.

Alex made a small face in disbelief. "You're kidding, right," he said. "You completely forgot that even though _we_ can't go through an entire school directory without someone noticing us, we know someone who can."

Gaby nodded, looking thoughtful. "That's right. Ghostwriter."

Alex nodded, and Lenni was also. "Yeah, there might be a lot of students that go to Dayton with the name Travis, but probably not very many named Daiki."

"And probably one grade with both of those names," Jamal added.

Lenni grinned as she held up the hand holding her pen. "And we can also get their addresses," she said.

Tina slumped a bit, however, looking a bit worried. "How would we know that the doppelganger would even be at their houses?" she asked, concerned. "Maybe he has never been at either of them."

"We won't know unless we try," Alex stated, shrugging a little.

Lenni nodded, writing down something while Gaby and Tina curiously watched. "Ghostwriter, please find the names Travis and Daiki in seventh and eighth grade at Dayton Middle School, and find their last names and addresses," she read aloud.

Gaby then looked up, interested. "Maybe Ghostwriter can also look for a list of things stolen at Dayton," she suggested.

"Maybe," Alex said, shrugging somewhat. "That is, if they happen to keep a list anywhere."

Jamal looked a bit thoughtful. "We don't know what was stolen, but if it was something major, like sound or some other type of equipment, they might."

Lenni leaned over the notebook again. "Please also look for a list of things stolen from Dayton," she said while writing.

"But the names and addresses of the doppelganger's friends are the priority," Alex added. "I really want to catch that guy."

Rob nodded in firm agreement. "Definitely," he added.

Though the doppelganger was only one of the thieves, it would definitely help if he was caught. He had had enough of his father frowning at him for something he had not actually done. Plus, he really did not want more trouble if any police officer thought he stole something again.

He soon saw familiar sparks fly through the wall of the bedroom, then circle above Lenni's notebook. Ghostwriter soon flew away.

Tina set a chin on her hand. "What about the girl that Rob said was the police officer's granddaughter?" she asked. She looked up toward Rob. "You said that she was in your grade."

He shrugged. "I don't know who she is," he replied. He turned toward Jamal, but the dark-skinned boy mirrored his shrugging gesture.

"I don't know either," he stated.

Alex nodded. "It's not as if anyone goes around asking who has a police officer for a grandfather."

Lenni frowned a bit as she laid her pen down on her open notebook. "Would that really help at all?" she asked. "I mean, we know she saw the video, but would she really believe it wasn't Rob who stole something if her grandfather showed her another one?"

Rob saw Gaby scowling slightly. "You could at least tell her that Rob _didn't_ steal anything the first time," she countered. "If you get her to believe that, then maybe she won't believe it next time."

They chattered about the doppelganger and his friends a bit more, then moved on to the stolen items, and the incident from yesterday. Gaby had gotten to the possibility that the thieves had somehow vanished onto a roof without anyone noticing, when Rob saw Ghostwriter's familiar sparks show up behind Lenni.

"Hey, it's Ghostwriter," he called out.

Alex, who had been frowning at his sister's statement, suddenly sat up straighter and looked in the older brunette girl's direction. The sparks flew through the air to between the beds, as if the ghost knew where to form a message where they would all easily see it. Actually, that was probably the case.

Lenni busily scribbled down the message, while Gaby and Tina watched intently. Rob noticed that although there was only one name and address for Daiki- Daiki Ishida- there were two for someone named Travis. He leaned forward a bit, seeing the names Travis Johnson and Travis Korreti. All were in seventh grade at Dayton Middle School. Three unfamiliar addresses were added after them, though he recognized one of the streets. Ghostwriter then added another message underneath the first.

_I didn't find a list of stolen items at Dayton, but I can keep on looking._

The older brunette girl finished jotting down the words. She nodded as the horizontal glowing message in the air vanished, and Ghostwriter's familiar circle and double curved line symbol appeared, hovering a bit, before flying through the wall behind them. Gaby soon got a large atlas that she and Alex spread out on the floor, and they were able to pretty quickly locate the street of both addresses.

"That one's the closest," Lenni pointed out, looking at the one for Travis Johnson's address. "It's right near that big playground over there. The other Travis is just about a block away."

"The other one, Daiki's, is just a few streets nearby," Tina added, pointing to another small street.

Gaby grinned some. "Right near Dayton." She pointed to the two-dimensional rectangular depiction of the building.

Rob was quite relieved that at least they did not have to return to the school this time. Once was enough, and also the rude Dayton kid, plus the angry high school girl had spotted him and Jamal, had correctly identified them as intruders.

Alex sat up. "We should probably split into groups to find out which Travis is the right one," he said.

Tina was frowning again. "How would we know?" she asked.

The Latino boy shrugged, and Lenni responded instead. "Maybe one of them would look different than what Alex said he looked like," she suggested. "If he doesn't have dark skin, then we would know for sure."

"What type of dark skin?" Tina was wanting to know. "Was it like Jamal's, or maybe darker, or lighter?"

Alex frowned, thinking. "I think it looked more like Jamal's color," he said after a few seconds.

Lenni then smiled. "And even if they both had about the same color, maybe the right one would recognize Rob-"

"And think he's the doppelganger!" Gaby finished, looking excited. "Wouldn't that be great?" She then turned to Rob, her grin becoming even wider. "You could even pretend to be a double agent and find out all kinds of things, like where the doppelganger is going to steal things next!"

Rob winced a bit at that one. For one thing, he really did not relish the thought of pretending to be a thief.

Fortunately, Tina spoke up. "I thought that the doppelganger's friends _weren't_ the thieves," she reminded them, while Jamal nodded some in agreement.

Alex nodded. "Yeah, we don't need more than we've already got. Catching that one guy is hard enough."

This left Gaby scowling a little bit, but she did not comment. A little while later, she and Tina refolded the atlas and took it back where it belonged. The former then purposely hung a small picture camera around her neck with its long, flat cord, even though that there was not too much of a chance that the doppelganger would be at any of the addresses. They decided that only two people needed to accompany Rob at each house, as Jamal pointed out that six would be too many at once.

Once outside, they walked a ways before splitting up near a set of apartments on Hartcourt Lane. Lenni gave them a thumbs up before Rob followed Jamal and Gaby up the narrow staircase, with Jamal holding a small notepad he had gotten from Alex.

Rob was a little worried when Jamal rang the doorbell and a dark-skinned woman with a skin tone close to Jamal's answered. She stated that her son Travis was busy doing chores, but they could leave a message. They hastily said that they were just friends- as they did not even know the doppelganger's name, for one thing- and soon were leaving down the narrow staircase back to ground level again.

The next address was a whole lot less stressful, since Travis Johnson had light skin. Jamal stated that they must have gotten the wrong place before quickly leaving. They met up with the rest of the team and went to the park nearby, sitting on long benches in underneath a large wooden shelter.

Gaby smiled. "It _has_ to be Travis Korreti," she stated officially while Lenni crossed through Travis Johnson's name in her notebook. "The other Travis has pale skin, light brown hair, and a lot of freckles."

"Definitely not the guy I saw at Hurston," Alex agreed, nodding.

Several young kids ran by just outside the shelter before Tina spoke up. "That leaves only one person left," she said.

Lenni nodded as she pointed to the short list. "Daiki Ishida," she stated.

Alex shrugged as another younger kid's playful squeal sounded from behind them. "We won't know until we try it," he said.

"Yes!" Gaby cheered, pumping a fist into the air. "Let's do it!"

They all left the park and went to the narrow sidewalks on a street of small, two-story town houses. Rob looked around him a bit warily, hoping that the actual doppelganger was not hiding somewhere nearby, and therefore able to more easily alert his friend Daiki that Rob was an imposter.

Meanwhile, Lenni was counting the large numbers on the front each townhouse as they went by them.

"One seventy-two, one seventy-four . . ." he heard her mutter as she squinted in the bright sunlight.

Gaby then stopped several houses later, her face set in a large grin. "There it is," she exclaimed, pointing to a light blue house with a few steps leading up to a cement porch. "One eighty-six!"

Rob nodded apprehensively, staring at the plain townhouse, no different than the others around it. Would Daiki, if he was actually here, really know the doppelganger? Hopefully they had not made a mistake in who they had asked Ghostwriter to look for. He also was not quite sure if he wanted to see . . . well, someone that looked exactly like himself staring angrily at him at some point. It had occurred this morning, but maybe that was somehow different. Then again, seeing him now would definitely be evidence that there was someone that looked like him, especially if Gaby managed to snap a picture (unless the doppelganger stole the camera).

Gaby had insisted in being in the trio again this time, due to needing her with her camera, and her brother had wanted to be in the group. He then frowned, looking at Gaby's stubborn face, with Alex's looking a little more than grim.

Rob thought about Daiki, if he was home, having only insults thrown at him just for having a thief as a friend. He might not even want to answer about anything unless Rob talked to him- calmly, though he wondered how composed he would be able to remain after a time, especially if the Japanese boy actually supported the thief stealing things, for some odd reason. There was also a chance that Daiki was innocent and knew nothing about the burglaries of his friend, as Tina had stated earlier, though. After all, the papers had only ever told of one kid stealing things, not three.

He felt a small shove behind him, and irritably turned around to see Gaby impatiently looking at him.

"Come on," she urged. "Let's go already!" Beside her, Alex was also looking impatient.

Rob turned to the team. "Maybe I should go alone for this one," he suggested, while Gaby's face turned incredulous. "I mean, if Daiki is even there, he might not want to talk if it's more obvious that I'm not the doppelganger, at least at first."

Unfortunately, most of the team was frowning, and Tina shook her head.

"I think it's still better to stick with some more people," she cautioned.

Gaby was nodding beside Alex. "Like we did with the two Travises," she added. "And how am I supposed to take a picture of the doppelganger if I'm not there?" The Latino girl pointedly lifted up her camera.

Rob looked at them all stubbornly**. **"Maybe it would make a difference," he replied. Seeing that his friends still looked rather disbelieving, he added, "And maybe Alex and Gaby could wait for just a just a couple of minutes, or something like that."

He glanced at Jamal, and was glad that the dark-skinned boy was actually nodding a bit. "Hey, this is Rob's doppelganger," Jamal pointed out. "He should have a say in this."

Lenni seemed to agree as she was nodding. Tina looked as if she did not know what to think, and Alex and Gaby still scowled a bit, especially the former.

"If we find out if anything was stolen from the bodega, Papa will be real mad," the Latino boy stated, frowning.

Rob shrugged apologetically. "Well, that's not right now," he commented.

Tina and the two siblings finally agreed after both Lenni and Jamal said a few more words, and Rob soon walked up alone the few concrete steps up to the plain dark-blue door. Looking back, he saw that his friends had congregated to a few houses to the left, but were watching steadily. A few random people meandered on past him on the sidewalk, only interested in their own conversations.

He sighed and rang the doorbell, and the door was soon opened by a curious Japanese high school aged girl, with her long, black hair tied back in a ponytail.

"I guess you're here to see Daiki again, right?" she asked, fairly nonchalantly.

Rob nodded quickly. "Yeah," he replied, a bit surprised that "he" was recognized again, and so quickly at that. "Is he here?"

He was glad that that at least he was not being accused this time. Rob did not bother to correct her about who he was, in fear she might send him away. Apparently his doppelganger had been at Daiki's house at least one time before, which could be promising for more information.

The girl nodded. "Sure, I'll get him," she replied.

Less than a minute later, a middle school kid came to the door. He was around Rob's age, and had jet-black hair, like the high school aged girl.

The Japanese boy then smiled. "Hi, Brandon," he said friendlily. "Why are you here?"

Rob then had to hide a surprised reaction- his troublemaker look-a-like finally had a name. He frowned inwardly, as he was here to tell that Daiki's friend was a thief, for one thing . . . At least Daiki would more easily believe that he was not pretending to be someone else besides the doppelganger- Brandon- since he and Travis has accompanied his look-a-like to the bodega earlier.

"I'm actually not Brandon," he said, a bit awkwardly.

Daiki's face looked a bit confused for a bit, then his eyes widened. "You're Rob, right?" he asked, startled.

There was a mix of confusion on his face and surprisingly, what also seemed to be fear. He was not quite sure why, but maybe it had to do something with actually suddenly being at his house the day that he had found out about him.

Rob nodded. "Yeah," he replied, glad that at least Daiki believed him about not being the doppelganger so fast. "You see, my friends' dad who owns a grocery store said that he saw your friend."

Hopefully Daiki would not instantly mistrust him due to . . . Brandon (it was quite odd thinking about the doppelganger with a name, instead of just his look-a-like thief) possibly not wanting to see him, for some reason.

"Yeah, that Spanish store," Daiki stated, also nodding, but still looking a bit wary. "The store manager was really nice."

Despite the situation, Rob could not help but smile a tiny bit. "Yeah, he is," he replied.

"Do you want to come inside?" Daiki asked.

Rob blinked, surprised. Really, the Japanese boy trusted him at least that much already?

"Sure," he answered.

He supposed that it was a good thing that at least one of the doppelganger's friends was at least seemingly nice to him. That could definitely help with catching the troublemaker.

Daiki led him upstairs to a small, blue-painted bedroom with various hangings and posters on the walls. Several of them held images that seemed definitely Asian, accompanied by unfamiliar spindly characters.

The black-haired boy turned around to see Rob staring at the things on the walls. Even though he himself had traveled to various places in the United States due to his father being in the air force, he had never been outside of the country. He had several souvenirs from different states, but it was interesting to see things that more definitely more foreign. Rob wondered briefly if Ghostwriter knew any other languages besides English. He then turned to Daiki again.

"Yeah, my family's Japanese," Daiki said. He looked a bit reserved, though, as if waiting to hear some criticism of his ancestry.

Rob nodded, a bit distracted due to the sudden appearance of Ghostwriter's familiar symbol in the room. Several letters flew together to create a message in Gaby's handwriting.

_Why didn't you ask us to come inside with you?_ the Latino girl furiously demanded.

Rob managed to keep himself from frowning, as that would make it seem that he disapproved of Daiki's background. He had actually managed to forget about telling Daiki about his other friends waiting for him. No doubt they would be mad later.

Rob then shrugged nonchalantly. "That's fine," he answered, awkwardly looking at Daiki through the floating letters. "Some of my friends have families that aren't from the states." The message soon faded away, as Ghostwriter seemed to sense that he would not be writing a response currently. He then did frown as he shifted the topic. "But I wanted to talk to you about your friend. You said his name is Brandon, right?"

Daiki nodded, and he continued. "The thing is, I've been accused twice so far of stealing things when I didn't, and both times, someone saw a kid that looked like me. One of those times the police gave me a warning."

The Japanese boy was also frowning a bit. He sighed, seeming to be thinking about what to say. Finally, he responded, his face quite serious.

"Okay, what you need to know is that it's way different than what it looks like," Daiki began. "Brandon doesn't-"

He did not get any further, as there was a sound of a window breaking from nearby. Rob saw Daiki gasp as he threw back the dark green curtains and opened the window. He leaned a bit downward through the screen-less hole, but soon came up, looking a bit panicked.

"Was that a window in your house?" Rob asked, coming beside him and glancing out the window. He friends had congregated near the small townhouse, and were looking at what was probably the broken first story window right near the door.

Daiki nodded, but his gaze seemed to follow something unseen in the room- but that could not be right, could it? Rob then saw Daiki's hand move slightly to the right- and he knew that he did not hallucinate the next part- a blue-ish glow appeared around his hand. He was just staring in shock, when suddenly out of the corner of his eye, he noticed someone that was just suddenly _there_. Rob turned around to see someone that, other than the different clothes, looked just like himself.

Rob was suddenly not sure what to say, or think, really. Sure, he had seen his look-a-like from across the street, but that was not close by like it was now. The doppelganger did not waste any reaction, though.

"Get out, _now!_" Brandon ordered, his face utterly serious.

Rob was confused, and not just that the voice somehow even _sounded_ like his. He managed to find his voice.

"What for?" he asked, incredulous. "I didn't break the window-"

He was not prepared as Brandon just suddenly lunged toward him, grabbing one of his arms- and then he was not quite sure what happened next as the scene around him just suddenly changed. Just as quickly, the doppelganger backed away and then was just not suddenly there anymore.

Rob was quite surprised to see the back of a light-blue building that went on for a ways. He was on the sidewalk, with just a few people somewhat about twenty feet away from him, completely engaged in their conversation.

Rob blinked at what had just occurred. It was just plain crazy, but he was outside . . . when he had not even gone out the door. He then looked at the long building again, and realized that it had to be the back of the set of townhouses that Daiki lived in. Why had Brandon (teleported? It was crazy; yet it _had_ happened . . .) him to the back of the house instead of the front?

It was then he remembered the broken window. Anyone that had heard it, including his friends, might be crowding around the area. The rest of the team might be especially curious since Jamal had told them about the broken car window in the Dayton parking lot, and Daiki's house was somewhat near there. Perhaps the doppelganger had wanted to put him somewhere that was close to the townhouses, but in a place where less people might see the teleporting.

He soon found his way toward the street he had been on. A few curious pedestrians were pointing at what was mostly likely the broken window. Sure enough, a bit later, he saw his friends crowded around the front door, and he saw Gaby reach out her arm, as if pressing the doorbell.

Rob finally caught up to them. They all turned around, varying amounts of surprise on their faces.

"Why did you go out the back door?" Alex asked, his face confused.

Rob did not really want to answer that question, due to his friends' reaction to the "flying" skateboard. If they did not believe him about that, then there was utterly no way that they would about what had just occurred.

He only shrugged instead, glad that the Daiki's older sister opened the door again just then. She seemed surprised to see all them standing there, especially Rob, but she did not comment.

Gaby wasted no time in speaking. "We need to talk to Daiki," she stated firmly.

The high school girl nodded. "I'll get him," she responded.

Unfortunately, she came back alone less than a minute later. "Sorry," she said apologetically. "He's busy right now. Maybe you can come back another time."

She closed the door, and they went to stand on the sidewalk. Gaby crossed her arms and scowled at Rob.

"So why didn't you let us in with Daiki?" she demanded. He noticed that most of the rest of the team was also looking rather annoyed.

Rob shrugged again, this time much more awkwardly. "I don't know," he said. He was not really used to them being angry with him that often.

Fortunately, Jamal was looking a bit calmer as they walked down the few steps to the wide sidewalk.

"So what happened in there, anyway?" he asked.

Rob was quite grateful that at least Jamal did not seem ready to yell at him. "Well, Daiki let me in, as you saw," he said. "I did get to find out the doppelganger's name just before that, though."

"Really?" Alex asked, suddenly interested.

He nodded. "Yeah, Daiki said that his name is Brandon," he relayed.

Gaby suddenly grinned a little bit. "So _that's_ what it is," she said. "It wasn't Branson, after all, or Brendon, or any of those."

Rob nodded again, then continued. "Yeah. Anyway, I was with Daiki in his room, and I told him about the doppelganger stealing things. Daiki said that the doppelganger stealing was different than what it looked like. Then he said, 'Brandon doesn't'- and then the window broke, and . . ."

Rob trailed off, for the older members of the team had not believed him about his skateboard earlier that day, and even though they had seen what had occurred just now, they still might not believe him about his look-a-like just appearing out of thin air, as he knew that he had. Actually, now that he thought about it, it was more like a . . . _summoning_, of some sort, with the glow on Daiki's hand . . .

How that had been possible, he did not know, but something about the doppelganger and his two friends apparently was quite different.

"And then what?" Lenni wanted to know.

Rob continued. "Anyway, the doppelganger came in the room, and yelled at me to leave . . . and so I did."

"The _doppelganger?_" Alex repeated in utter amazement.

He nodded. Predictably, Gaby was especially angry.

"I could have taken his picture with you!" she exclaimed.

From what had just occurred, Rob rather doubted that she could have done that if the doppelganger was against it, but again, he did not say anything. He looked at his friends. Not even Jamal seemed to be on his side this time.

Fortunately, the sound of a nearing police siren diverted their attention. He guessed that Daiki's sister or someone else in his family had called the police. The siren stopped right after the car parked near them, and a different officer came out of the car.

"Did you see who broke the window?" the officer asked them authoritatively.

Jamal shook his head. "No," he responded. "Sorry."

The officer nodded curtly. "You all have better go elsewhere," he stated firmly.

Rob hoped that the officer did not even somewhat think that they were the vandalizers, but, who knew. He and the team nodded, and then the uniformed man then quickly marched up the front steps to ring the doorbell.

Alex raised an eyebrow. "I guess we're not going to get much out of here today," he stated regretfully as they started down the sidewalk.

"Unless the doppelganger comes out and we just happen to see him," Lenni added, huffing slightly.

Gaby crossed her arms. "Yeah, and we _didn't_ get to see him since Rob wanted to go in Daiki's house all by himself."

Tina frowned a bit at the Latino girl. "Well, we did decide to let Rob talk with Daiki first, right?" she reminded her. "Maybe we can try again tomorrow."

Rob was relieved that at least _someone_ was standing up for him. Jamal seemed to also agree, as he was nodding.

"We all know where Daiki lives now, and also Travis," the dark-skinned boy stated.

"And that the doppelganger might come to Daiki's house," Tina added.

Alex was thankfully looking a bit less angry, unlike his sister. Rob saw her huff and stare at the row of blue townhouses, where the policeman was still inside. Maybe she was more irritated since she really had been hoping to take a picture of the look-a-like.

They eventually agreed to come back in several days when they were all free. Rob listened to his friends chatter about some after school events from both of their schools as he walked along with them back to their side of Brooklyn. Maybe at some point he would actually see the doppelganger again, and find out more about him.


End file.
